Competing comments and statements this week have sown confusion over whether or not the year-long Black boycott against Target is ending or continuing. Amid disputes over who started the boycott, a leading pastor in the movement has declared victory and the end of the campaign, while other activists are seeking an apology from the megastore chain or simply demanding that the boycott continue.
Rev. Jamal Bryant declares ‘Target Fast’ over; Nina Turner and Tamika Mallory demand apology from the company
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Wednesday that Pastor Jamal Bryant was calling for an end of the boycott against Target that he has been promoting for over a year. Bryant made the announcement during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “We are claiming victory,” Bryant told reporters, adding, “We’ve got to celebrate small steps.” Target, meanwhile, responded by saying in a statement that it was “pleased to be moving forward,” according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Minneapolis-based retail company pledged to “continue showing up as trusted neighbors while delivering results for … team members, guests and the more than 2,000 communities” in which it is present. Bryant, pastor of the Atlanta-based New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, later explained that “the immediate Target fast has come to an end” due to Target meeting three of the movement’s four main objectives: following through on its 2020 pledge to invest $2 billion in Black communities, partnering with HBCUs, and “a reimagining of DEI.” Bryant said that they were “still working towards” the movement’s fourth goal, “an investment into Black banks.”
Rev Dr Jamal H Bryant has been diligent and got some major wins. 3/4 things he brought to the table were accepted. Love to see it. @jamalbryantpod pic.twitter.com/fmaHAseFr3
— Mister GD
(@Geof_Dean) March 12, 2026
The boycott against Target began early in 2025, after the company announced it was rolling back its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion efforts, an apparent response to President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI orders. While Bryant expressed satisfaction with the company’s response and with its new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, other boycott leaders were less conciliatory. Activists Tamika Mallory and former Ohio state legislator Nina Turner, who claimed to have started the boycott and recruited Bryant, joined the pastor at the press conference, but they demanded Fiddelke issue a public apology on behalf of Target. “When will you state to our community the harm that you have caused and welcome us back — that you will accept it and do better?” Mallory asked. “To date, that has not happened.” Turner later posted on social media, “I’m not going back to Target. And you shouldn’t, either.”
Nekima Levy Armstrong disputes boycott leadership, declares boycott is continuing
Meanwhile, activist Nekima Levy Armstrong declared that the boycott was ongoing while breaking publicly with the other leaders. “We are still boycotting Target,” Levy Armstrong posted. “Don’t believe the lies from ‘Pastor’ Jamal Bryant, Tamika Mallory & Nina Turner. They didn’t start the boycott. We did.” In a caption accompanying her post, Levy Armstrong explained, “The nationwide Target Boycott is not over, unless and until Target reverses its decision to rollback Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as we said from the beginning. ‘Pastor’ Jamal Bryant does not speak for us or our community and has zero authority to end the nationwide boycott of Target, a company that is headquartered in Minneapolis.“
Levy Armstrong, who recently made headlines as an organizer of an anti-ICE protest in a Minnesota church that led to federal charges and attacks by the Trump administration against her and others, placed the boycott in the context of Target “capitulating to the Trump Administration.” As she explained, “Target rolled back DEI because of Donald Trump. They donated $1 million to the Trump/Vance inauguration committee. Target also allowed ICE to stage in its parking lots during Operation Metro Surge.”
The competing messages coming from the leading faces of the Target boycott leave uncertainty over the status of the campaign or what concessions Target may make in the future. While some leaders like Bryant seem eager to work with the company, other boycott leaders have declared that Target has not met the campaign’s demands and urge Black customers to continue to avoid the company until it makes greater changes.
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